Due to the Paris Olympics being held at the end of July, the 78th edition of the Avignon Festival begins a week earlier than usual, on June 29, and ends on July 21, two days more than in 2023 It includes 37 events, including 35 shows and 2 exhibitions and longer series. At the beginning of April, the director of the Festival, Tiago Rodrigues, placed this 2024 vintage under the sign of the quest for words, “the celebration of living art” and of “the discovery of the unknown”. After the dissolution of Parliament decreed by the President of the Republic, the unknown is mainly the result of the legislative elections of June 30 and July 7.
Faced with the risk of a victory for the far-right, Tiago Rodrigues put himself in a fighting position. He plans a festival of resistance, based on an attractive poster. The program includes many new releases: 84% creations, including 50% world premieres. As in 2023, a mixture of audacity and balance prevails: total parity of guest artists (19 women and 19 men), 51% theater and 49% multidisciplinary shows (dance, circus, musical shows), almost as many French artists as foreign ones… Choreographer Boris Charmatz plays the role of “accomplice artist”, with several shows in his baggage.
Who is entrusted with the Court of Honor at the opening? To one of the most renowned Spanish artists: the iconoclast Angelica Liddell presents her new creation “Dämon. El Funeral de Bergman”, a necessarily offbeat tribute to the Swedish artist, summoning death and its ghosts (from June 29 to July 5). Another magical place, the Carrière de Boulbon, welcomes the Comédie-Française with a creation by Tiago Rodrigues, his first as director of the festival, “Hecuba, not Hécube”, after Euripides. The great French tragedienne, Elsa Lepoivre, takes on the title role, surrounded by Denis Podalydès and Eric Génovèse (from June 30 to July 16).
Two major creators of the French scene present their new shows: Séverine Chavrier, director of the Comédie de Genève, creates the world premiere at FabricA, “Absalon, Absalon”, adaptation of William Faulkner’s bitter novel about the Civil War ( from June 29 to July 7). Caroline Guiela Nguyen, director of TNS, shows “Lacrima”, the story of making a wedding dress, at the Lycée Aubanel Gymnasium (from July 1 to 11).
Finish the bridge with “Quixote”
He almost settled in Avignon with his project “Dismantle the ramparts to finish the bridge”… After Shakespeare’s “The Dream”, Gwenaël Morin tackles, in the garden on rue de Mons, a Spanish classic, “ Quixote”, by Cervantes… to better shake it up and no doubt exalt it (from July 1 to 20). The show counts in its (reduced) cast the fascinating Jeanne Balibar. At the Chartreuse de Villeneuve-lez-Avignon, Mohamed El Khatib, herald of an ultra-sensitive documentary theater, invites us to discover “The secret life of the old” (from July 4 to 19).
In mid-July, Polish star Krzysztof Warlikowski takes over from Angelica Liddell in the Court of Honor with “Elizabeth Costello. Seven lessons and five moral tales”, inspired by the work of JM Coetzee (from July 16 to 21). For her part, Lorraine de Sagazan, who has just triumphed at the Vieux-Colombier with “Le Silence”, takes up residence at the Aubanel high school gymnasium to present her “Léviathan”, a play questioning the judicial system (from July 15 to 21).
Festival-goers will also have an appointment with three promising shows in the Hispanic language: “Los dias afuera” by Lola Arias featuring transgender people released from an Argentinian prison; “Historia d’un senglar (o alguna cosa de Ricard), adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Richard III” by the Uruguayan Gabriel Calderon at the Benoît XII Theater (July 12 and 21); and “A Voracious Shadow”, an intriguing variation on Petrarch’s “The Ascent of Mont Ventoux” by Argentinian Mariano Pensotti (in various locations, from July 2 to 20).
Two hundred dancers
After a lackluster dance program last year, this edition was eagerly awaited. Boris Charmatz, the Frenchman at the head of the Tanztheater in Wuppertal, takes over the Stade de Bagatelle in Avignon with “Cercles”, “an open-air choreographic emergence that builds over the days”. A group of 200 amateurs and professionals presenting a collection of circle dances (from June 29 to July 1).
We will also be able to see, at the same place, the revival of “Liberté Cathédrale” created in Wuppertal last fall (from July 5 to 9). Finally, the choreographer offers “Forever”, a 7-hour immersion in Pina Bausch’s piece, “Café Müller” at FabricA (July 14 to 21). “He will be present from the last to the first day of the festival”laughed Tiago Rodrigues during his press conference.
The turbulent and exciting Spanish La Ribot creates “Juana Ficcion” with Asier Puga, a union of dance and music “to give a poetic existence to Queen Joanna I of Castile” at the Cloître des Célestins (from July 3 to 7). Noé Soulier, one of the most talented French choreographers, invites Bach and his “Art of Fugue” performed live by the Il Convito ensemble. “Close Up”, a piece for 6 dancers at the Grand Opéra d’Avignon, is a promise of beauty in movement (from July 15 to 20).
“The Disappearing Act” by Yinka Esi Graves offers a dialogue between flamenco art and the African presence in Spain in the courtyard of Saint-Joseph high school. Finally, we are delighted to find in the same place Baro d’evel, a duo which brings together Camille Decourtye and Blaï Mateu Trias, between dance, performance and circus. “Who are you?” », their new opus promises “giddiness and wonder” (from July 3 to 14). Almost a subtitle for this 78th festival.
78th Avignon Festival, from June 29 to July 21, festival-avignon.com/
